The Ocean is a Friend of Mine
by goldfish400
Summary: After Moana passes, she finds new life when the ocean gifts her with immortality and a new heart in the form of a blue stone similar to that of Te Fiti. Eager with her new found immortality and ability to control the ocean, she and Maui set out on another voyage, but this time neither have an end in mind.
1. Chapter 1

It's early morning in Motunui. The sun is barely beginning to peak over the horizon, replacing the pitch black of the night with a soft, cool blue.

Everything is quiet. No candles are lit around any of the _fales_ around the village except for one. The medical _fale,_ where Moana is now laying.

It's been decades since she set off with Maui to restore the heart of Te Fiti. Even after they parted ways, the two stayed close friends. At first, Maui's visits to the village were very spread out. He claimed he could only visit 'when he had time', and only visited once every six or so months for short periods of time. But as time went on, he would begin to stay for longer periods of time, and after a while he began to visit more frequently as well. It got to a point where the villagers considered Maui to be one of their own.

His visits always started the same way. She'd throw her arms around him in a tight hug, and then they'd walk down the beach and catch up. If he had a new tattoo, she would notice right away, and she'd bother him about it until her told her its story. Sometimes he would keep her waiting as long as he could or pretended like he had no clue what she was talking about just to bask in the fact that she was freaking out and gushing over something he was entirely responsible for. " _Not your hero, my butt"_ He'd joke.

So it makes sense that it was he who noticed her begin to age before even she did. If she knew but chose to hide it, she hid it well. Her hugs never seemed to feel any less bone-crushing, and she still had the same perk in her step as she walked along the beach. It wasn't until a particularly sunny day did Maui notice that Moana's hair was beginning to gray. Almost as if everything were a big jigsaw puzzle putting itself together, it was his next visit when he noticed Moana was using her favorite oar to help herself get around. The same oar he had carved his autograph into so many years ago.

It was after these two visits when he decided to visit every day. He knew time passed differently for him, and he was too afraid that if he were to leave for more than a few days, he would accidentally leave for a few years and that Moana would no longer be waiting for him when he came back.

And so he did. And each time he came back, Moana seemed older and older than she was the previous day, but that spark inside never left her. Often times he'd find her dancing with the ocean waves on the shore. Maybe she had more in common with that grandma she'd spent so much time telling him about than he originally thought.

That's what makes today's visit the hardest to bear. Because he knew it was coming. He just wished it wouldn't be today. He wished it wouldn't be happening so soon.

Moana lifts her head off her sleeping mat slowly as two of the younger men from the village assist her. One's placing a cool cloth on her forehead, and the other is placing a hand behind her head to support her as she drinks from a coconut. As she lifts her head, she gets a look at the crowd of villagers that have gathered to see her, and gets a quick glance of Maui trying to hide at the back of the crowd. She rolls her eyes smiles as she waves a hand at the boy with the coconut to indicate that she's done and wants to lie back down. As she lies back down, she looks straight up, and once again finds herself staring at Maui.

Well, a _tapa cloth_ of Maui. But it's still Maui. As she's looking at it, she's suddenly reminded of the last time she was in here for this long, staring at this tapa cloth for this long. That was when she was in here with Tala, right before she set out to find Maui in the first place. She sends her glance down at the crowd, and her eyes immediately push past them and lock onto the sea. The sun, now completely over the horizon, is twinkling and dancing on the waves. Her eyes then pop back over to the crowd of villagers, who still haven't moved much since she first entered the medical fale since last night, and this time, they lock on Maui. She smiles and turns toward her two caretakers.

"Can one of you do me a favor," she says, flicking her gaze towards the crowd. "And go out there, grab Maui by the ear, and drag his big butt in here?" She says, and as the one to her right stands, her gaze once again falls on the crowd.

"I didn't think I'd have to ask him" She says, louder, clearly meaning for Maui to hear every word. "It's so quiet in here without a certain someone sitting by my mat and talking my poor old ears off" she cracks, and a number of the villagers outside begin to whisper and giggle before they all step aside, leaving Maui as the only one standing in front of the entrance.

"Oh, ha ha" he says sarcastically as he ducks his head to enter the _fale._ "Even when you're…" he starts, but then he gets caught on the last word and has to clear his throat to get rid of the sudden lump in his throat as well as the stupid thoughts beginning to form in his head. "Lying here," he continues as he kneels down next to her, placing his fish hook down next to him. "You have to make fun of me, don't you?"

"Yep!" Moana chimes, a mischievous smile on her face. "And I'm going to keep doing it until the moment I die" she jokes, but when Maui winces at her words, her smile fades slightly and becomes a more sympathetic one. She gently reaches up to touch one of his arms, slapping it gently.

"You want to know the real reason I called you in here?" She asks, and then weakly gestures her head up at the tapa cloth hanging over her bed. "That thing right there. My grandma was lying on this exact mat overlooking this exact cloth when she died" She says, and Maui frowns. "My point is," Moana says, trying to catch Maui's attention before he gets too deep in his thoughts. "Is that you don't need to worry about me. Even after she passed, she visited me frequently. Even recently, down at the water, I just knew that manta ray watching me as I danced was her". Tightening her grip on Maui's arm, Moana trembles heavily as she uses it to help herself sit up so she can be closer to his eye level.

"I know you're scared" She says, and Maui, through his deepening frown, glares at her. "Oh, come on. I've known you practically my entire life. Don't think I don't notice these kinds of things" She says, and Maui offers a weak laugh in response. "But you don't need to be." Moana continues. "Because first of all, I'll always be with you right here" She says, jabbing at the inked version of herself over Maui's heart. "Literally. She's not coming off, as far as I'm concerned" she says, and snorts at her own joke before continuing. "And secondly, I'm going to come back as someone or something else anyway, right?" She asks, her weak, sympathetic smile returning. "If I don't find you, you could always come looking for me".

Moana loosens her grip on Maui's arm and slowly lies herself back down. "Who knows?" She says quietly. "Maybe you'll see me again sooner than you think". As she says this, her grip on Maui's arm is released, and it ungracefully slides off of his arm and lands by her side.

Maui sighs quietly. She always had a way with calming words. It must be part of what made her a great chief. "Thank y-" he starts, but his own words get caught in his throat when he sees Moana's eyes are closed.

"...Moana?" he asks quietly, but gets no response. "Moana come on, that's not funny" he says, but once again he receives no response. The sudden outburst of whispers from the crowd outside reminds him that they're still there. He looks up at them, and then back to Moana, and suddenly finds himself overwhelmed with emotion. Blindly picking him his fish hook, he pushes his way through the crowd before transforming himself into a hawk and taking off from the crowd. He doesn't settle himself until he finds the farthest tree on the island shore. Inspecting each branch carefully, Maui waits until he finds the one that looks the sturdiest, and he lands on it before transforming himself back into a human. He sits down, one hand leaning against the tree for support, and looks out at the water.

As he's sitting, a heavy breeze whips by him from behind towards the direction he had just come from. He tightens his grip on the tree, but he does not look back. He can't. He knows that the villagers are probably removing Moana's body to keep it safe and bring it somewhere to be protected before her burial. The last thing he wanted was to have to watch that. So instead he forces himself to keep his concentration out on the sea to try and distract himself of what just happened.

As he's doing this, another breeze, one just as rough as the first one blows by, but this one feels cooler, and Maui can swear that for a short moment as it passes over the sea, the entire ocean glows a much brighter blue than its normal daytime hue. Maui shakes his head and disregards it before turning his head back to the village. Slowly, those who were with him at the medical tent were spreading the news to those who weren't, and the would-be energetic activity that usually spread throughout Motunui at this time of morning was slowed to a stop. Letting out a sigh, Maui transforms himself back into a hawk again and takes off from the tree. This was beginning to be too much for him. He decided he would leave, only for a few days, and then come back to check on the rest of the village to see if they were doing okay. Taking one last glance at the grief-stricken village, he takes off from the tree and flies off away from Motunui to give himself time to grieve on his own.

It's three days later just as the moon is rising when Maui touches back down on the beach. Just as Moana would, there's a small group of villagers gathered to wait for him.

"Maui" the current chief says, taking a step forward from the group. "We have…a question for you" he says, and Maui raises an eyebrow in questioning at him.

"Yeah? What is it?"

"We were…" the chief pauses, glancing at the small group around him. "Wondering if you'd like to attend Moana's burial. We…we completely understand if you're not comfortable with it, but we figured since she was your best friend, that you'd-"

"No, no" Maui says, waving a hand in the air to dismiss any further comments. "It's fine. I'd, uh, be honored to" He says, resting his hook over his shoulder. "When is it?"

"Well, we've been preparing it since you left, but chose to wait in case you came back"

"Oh." Maui says, shifting his foot in the sand uneasily. "So you're saying it would be…?"

"Right now? Yes" The chief says, but shakes his head. "If you'd rather wait," he starts, but this time Maui shakes his head.

"No really, it's fine. Where is she?" Maui asks, and the chief smiles.

"Right over there" he says, and gestures to a small boat covered in cloth and flowers. "Out to sea. Just how she'd want it"

Maui shakes his head, smiling slightly. "That's Moana" He says, and begins to join a large crowd he's only now noticing surrounding the small boat.

When he finds a comfortable spot towards the back of the crowd, the current chief stands in front of the boat and begins to speak a few words. Maui blocks it out, keeping all of his attention on the boat. Other people step forward to speak about her, but Maui does not. After a final prayer of safety for her body is said, the boat is cast out into the water. Maui does not watch.

After everyone dispels, Maui is the only one remaining on the beach. Taking two glances side to side, Maui begins to walk along the beach at the water's edge, his feet sinking into the soft, damp sand. His fish hook is dragging behind him creating a long line-shaped indent as he walks. He's completely quiet, only looking down at the ground as he walks.

When the moon is far above Maui's head, he's still walking around the beach. All of a sudden, the ocean rises to his ankles and begins swirling around them in small circles. Taking it as a form of comfort instead of a means of getting his attention, he stops walking, but does not glance out at the ocean or push it away. As he stops, the intensity of the swirl increases until it eventually breaks away and instead resorts to splashing itself wildly against his feet. He attempts to start walking again, confused by the ocean's actions, but like three days ago, a sudden bright blue flash of light catches his attention and he finally turns to face the ocean.

"Um." He says awkwardly, looking down at the ocean. "Are you trying to get me to thank you for comforting me or something?" He asks, and in response, the ocean forms itself into a sentient blob and rises itself up until he has to look up to look at it.

"I'll take that as a no" He says, backing away slightly so he doesn't have to crane his neck as much to look at it. " _Have_ you been trying to get my attention for the past hour? Is there something you're trying to tell me?" He asks it, and the ocean nods in an _uncharacteristically_ excited kind of way. Maui raises an eyebrow in suspicion. "Does it…" Maui pauses, looking around at his surroundings. "Have to do with…Moana?" He guesses, and once again, the ocean splashes its 'head' up and down in a fast, enthusiastic manner.

"Well," he asks, finding himself getting amused by the ocean's enthusiasm. "What about her?" He asks, and if the ocean could smile, Maui swears that's what it's doing. The blob crashes itself back down, creating a slight spray. Maui steps forward, but before he can ask another question, the entire ocean once again flashes an intense bright blue color, and Maui has to squint to keep his focus on the ocean.

The ocean rises itself back up into a blob, but this time it stops at what would be Moana's height. The blob begins to spin in an intensely fast circle, and as it does, it appears to be taking a form. It begins to slow down, and as it does, the ocean's chosen form begins to become clear.

It's _Moana._ Standing in front of Maui is what looks to him like a water copy of her when she was young. Her long, curly hair falling over her shoulders, her dress glowing a slightly lighter blue than the rest of her body, and a group of what look like stars make up her necklace. When her eyes meet his, her entire face lights up in a smile.

"No," Maui says, both eyebrows raised in shock as he stumbles back. "That's…" he pauses. "That's not funny." He says, and the water copy of Moana looks at him with confusion for a moment before it's replaced with another smile. That same mischievous smile Moana used to give him whenever she made fun of him.

"Funny?" She asks in Moana's voice. "Am I supposed to look funny?" She asks, sending a sideways glance at the ocean around her before returning her gaze to Maui. "You know, you're not exactly the best looking person on this island in my opinion, either" she says, rolling her eyes.

Maui's only able to stare at her in shock and disbelief. He already knows for _sure_ that the ocean can't talk, and if he's hearing Moana's voice coming from this water spirit, cracking only comments Moana would make at him, than that must mean that this water spirit _truly_ is Moana.

"Moana?" He asks stupidly, and she laughs again.

"Maui?" she asks back, mocking him.

"You're-"

"Alive? I know, isn't it cool?" She asks, stretching her arms out at the sky. "I TOLD you I'd see you again sooner than you thought you would!" She says, pointing a finger at him, her smile only widening. Maui's got a whole world of expression on his face, but _relief_ seems to be the one showing through the most.

"C'mere" she says, opening her arms to a hug, and all of his emotions breakaway into this choked up smile as he tries to hug her back. Except, since she's made entirely of water, he slips right through her and falls face flat into the water behind her. Moana begins to laugh again, and Maui glares at her with frustration before his expression eases back into a confused one.

"How is this possible?" He asks as he stands up, and Moana spins herself around to look at him.

"Well, it started when you guys casted my body out to sea." She gives him thumbs up. "Kudos to whoever's idea that was" She says, and then shakes her head in laughter. "When I was cast out, I guess the ocean recognized me and pulled me under the water. It…" She pauses, trying to find the right words. "Filled my body with water, or rather, shed my old body and replaced it with water?" She says, her face crinkling up when she realizes she's probably making it sound a lot worse than what had actually happened. "Anyway," she says, shrugging her poor choice of words off, "After that, the ocean gave me a new heart!" Moana says, and pops open her spiral necklace. In her chest is a deep blue stone with what looks like ocean waves carved into it. It's beating. "Looks just like Te Fiti's, huh?" She asks, and clamps the necklace shut.

It takes a moment for Maui to respond, as he's still trying to go step by step processing her story in his head. "Okay, so hold on. If your 'new heart' is like Te Fiti's, does that make you…immortal?"

"Huh." Moana says, bringing a hand to her chin. "I guess so!" She says, smiling, and as she says that, she shoots a glance at something over Maui's shoulder. He turns to follow her gaze and finds that she's looking out on the horizon.

"You know what we should do?" Moana asks, her eyes somehow managing to beam with happiness. "We should go exploring" She says, throwing her cold, wet hands against Maui's side.

"What?" Maui asks, shaking his head. "Moana, that's insane"

"Oh, come on!" She shouts, throwing her arms up in the air. "It could be a lot of fun! And we'd never have to stop, because we're both immortal!" She says, somehow managing to tug on Maui's arm. "Give me one reason why we can't. There's nobody here to wait and wonder where we are, and it's not like the ocean would give us trouble for leaving, because I can probably guarantee you the protection of the literal entire ocean. I can prove it, too. Watch this" She says, and looks around before noticing half a coconut shell sitting on the other side of the beach. Quickly shooting a smirk in Maui's direction, she focuses all of her attention on the shell, and flicks her wrist in its direction. Down the beach, a small wave forms, picks up the shell, and hurls it into the water in the distance. She turns back around to face Maui who watches the shell _sploosh_ into the water on impact with an impressed expression on his face. "Do you know how much power we have collectively now?" She says, clearly getting herself excited. "Or how much further we could explore now that I can _control the ocean?"_ She asks, clenching her fists up in excitement, and she can see through his expressions that Maui's starting to get excited by the ideas too.

"As a matter of fact, since we're both wondering anyway, why don't we sail back to Te Fiti to get some confirmation first? Who would know about immortality and life-giving better than the mother island herself?" Moana says, her excited grin now looking as if it could split her face in half. "And we can see where we go from there? The possibilities are literally endless" she says, and holds her hand out to Maui. "Well?" She asks. "Do we have a deal? Are we going or not?" She asks, and Maui grins.

"Deal" He says, attempting to grab the hand-shaped blob of water in front of him, and she smiles.

"Race you to the canoes" she says, gesturing her head towards the cave where her ancestor's boats are kept, but before Maui can say anything else, she begins to push her way down the beach as fast as she can. Rolling his eyes, Maui swings his hook over his head and transforms himself back into a hawk before flying after her and into the cave to pick out a new boat.


	2. Chapter 2

"So…" Maui says once he's aboard the new canoe and sets it on course to Te Fiti. "How does it feel being so close to old Blue there?" He asks, gesturing to the ocean. Moana, currently having no legs, is sitting on the side of the canoe, the bottom of her torso connecting to the sea below.

"It feels great!" Moana says, once again reaching her arms up in a stretch. "I feel so free. I thought just being OUT in the water was freeing enough," Moana says, pausing to twist her torso around in a circle. "But this is so much better. I don't have to worry about pain, or hunger, or any of the other responsibilities of being human, you know?" She asks, shooting him a glance, and he smiles and shakes his head. It's a feeling he knew all too well.

"Is this what feeling immortal is like?" She asks him, reading his thoughts, and he laughs.

"Well, I can't exactly twist my body around like that, so I'm going to say no," he says, "but that bit about feeling free of human responsibility? Absolutely" He carefully walks to the side she's on and sits next to her slowly, careful not to rock the boat under his weight. "Just knowing that you don't have to worry about remembering to eat or ever having to sleep is one of the best feelings in the world, because you never have to take a break from exploring or battling this one monster because you forgot to eat or because you're getting too tired and need sleep"

"I can imagine" Moana says, beaming. "I can't wait. Though," she says, tilting her head to one side. "Eating never really bothered me. I used to be the kind of person who would eat whenever I got bored, believe it or not"

"What? Nooo…" Maui draws out sarcastically. "It's not like you used to pull a piece of fruit out of the cargo hold and much on it every fifteen minutes on every voyage you and I took alone or anything" He rolls his eyes at her, and she flicks her wrist in his direction to splash him in the face with seawater.

"Oh hush" She says, crossing her arms.

"Hey," he says, pushing wet hair out of his face. "You won't need to worry about that, either though, right? Because you're going to be so busy?"

"Yep! No more food for me!" She says, leaning back on the boat's deck with her hands tucked gently behind her head. "And no sleep, either. That's the part I'm really excited for" She says, jumping back up into a sitting position. "I've hated having to go to bed my entire life. I just _know_ there's so much more going on and that there's so much more to do, so what's the point of putting everything off until morning to go to bed?" She says, and she continues without letting Maui speak as if this isn't the first time she's had this particular conversation. "I mean, I get that it's dark, but we have fire for a reason, don't we?" She asks, and raises herself up out of the water as if attempting to jump to her feet. Realizing her mistake, she sheepishly curls herself back down until she's sitting back down on the deck. "I mean yes, fire is warm. I know" She says, her eyes falling on the tattoo on Maui's stomach. "But it's also light!" She says, her gaze now out at the water as she gestures to it dramatically. "If you can keep a fire going at night, you can keep yourself warm AND have enough light to keep working on whatever it is you're doing. It's a great idea" She says, crossing her arms. "But it's always been 'no Moana, it's too late to start a fire' this, or 'no, Moana, it's too dark out to do that'" She says. "If we can use torches to light up our _fales_ , why can't we use campfires to help us when we're working on the ground?" She complains, and next to her, Maui snorts a laugh.

"You're welcome for that" He says, smiling smugly. "I hadn't realized fire was so important to you. I hadn't considered stealing fire to help humans see at night, because I was too busy preventing them from freezing to death," He says, smirking, and he turns to her. "But that's a good idea too."

"Are you really going to turn everything I say into something about you?" Moana asks as she raises herself up to move over to the opposite side of the boat. Maui watches her and stands when he realizes she's just trying to switch her seat.

"I'm sorry, how long have you known me?" He asks, leaning on the mast with a smug expression on his face.

"Not long enough, apparently" Moana responds, and even though she's not looking at him, he can tell she's rolling her eyes at him. He walks over to her again, and glances down at the water where Moana's lower torso is still attached to the water. He frowns.

"Hey, Moana" he asks, and she turns to look at him.

"You said you can control the ocean now, right?" He asks, and she sends a quick glance at the water before sending him a confused glance.

"Yeah, why?"

"Do you happen to know the extent of that?" He asks, and her confusion only deepens.

"No, I don't think so. Why?"

"Do you happen to know if you can use the ocean to help you with specific things?" He asks, glancing down, and she follows his gaze to the line where her body ends and where the ocean starts.

"No, but I can try" She says, and waves her hand back to get Maui to back up further. "Stand back, I want to try something, but if this doesn't work, or if I screw up, I'm probably gonna end up capsizing the boat". She moves herself to the back of the boat and places her hands down on the deck. She then begins pushing down on the deck the same way someone would help themselves up when they fall overboard.

 _Huh._ Maui thinks as he watches her with curiosity. _That's a good idea. Maybe she can trick the ocean into letting her back onto the boat._

As she pushes down on the boat, her form rises above the water, but unfortunately doesn't stop. She rises up until she's at her full height, and her fingers are barely touching the deck at this point.

"Come on," she grunts in frustration as she continues to push herself against the boat. "There's gotta be some way…" She says as she shrinks her form back down until her hands are back on the boat. Closing her eyes, she pushes herself up again, more slowly this time, and leans on the boat as she does so. Sighing, she begins to whisper to herself as she continues. She feels the ocean vibrating around her, and she pops an eye open to see that the ocean is creating a ring around her lower torso. Before she's even aware of what's happening, her long torso disappears, and two legs pop into place.

"Aah!" She yelps as she finds herself mid-air and splashes down onto the boat deck. Shaking her head, she stands, and glances down at herself before turning her attention to Maui, who's staring at her in disbelief.

She grins and poses dramatically. "Ta da!" She jokes; throwing jazz hands into the air, and Maui shakes his head and laughs.

"Alright, you got me there" he says, and quickly finds himself glancing at the blue beating heart slightly visible through her starry necklace. "But I've got another question. For you. Having nothing to do with the ocean".

"Shoot." Moana says, and sits down at the side of the boat. Maui follows suit.

"The whole 'immortality' thing." Maui says. "How are you adjusting to that?" He asks curiously.

"Not…very well" Moana says, bringing a hand to her head like she's got a headache. "I can't seem to wrap my head around the fact that I'm going to live FOREVER" She says, and then shoots him a glance.

"How long did it take you to adjust, now that you say that?" She asks, tilting her head slightly in curiosity.

"Years" Maui says, wide-eyed. He leans back and rests the palm of his hands down on the deck. "I was made immortal when I was just a kid, you know? So I didn't even really get what that meant at first. I'm not even sure I was aware I was immortal, come to think of it." He looks up at the sky. "I knew I was special. The gods gave me my fish hook when I was about three years old"

As he's talking, a flash of movement catches Moana's attention, and she glances at Maui's shoulder to see Mini Maui trying to catch her attention. When he knows he has her, he raises his little ink fish hook and shrinks it down to a much smaller size.

"But I thought that's all there was to it. The gods never really treated me like I was anything special. I had mortal friends, as a matter of fact" He says, shaking his head. "But they kept using words like 'mortal' and 'human' when they were talking about them, but not me. It was confusing" He scrunches his face up in confusion as he says it. "So one day I asked them why they did that, and they explained to me what 'immortal' actually meant". Maui rolls his eyes awkwardly. "I, uh, didn't take it well. I didn't talk to any of my mortal friends for about a week after that, I think" He says, scratching at his chin awkwardly. "It's a lot to hear you're going to live forever as a kid, because you think it's a joke, or just something you hear in myths." He says, and returns his attention to her.

"Ugh" Moana says, shaking her head in discomfort. "I can imagine. I told you the story about how the ocean and I first met, right?" She asks.

"The one with the baby turtle? Only about 600 times" He says, rolling his eyes.

"Hush. Anyways, up until I was sixteen when the ocean reintroduced itself, I thought I had dreamed the whole thing. I thought 'there's no way the ocean actually came to life like that.' I guess when you're young you tend to think everything amazing that happens to you is just a dream".

"Hah, I can attest to that" Maui says, laughing. "If I didn't have the fish hook to prove it I don't think I'd believe even _now_ that the gods were the one who raised me" He places the hook on his lap and begins to run his hand around it.

"Oh, speaking of which," Moana says, eyeing the hook curiously. "How long did _that_ thing take getting used to? Or your powers?" She asks, and Maui snorts a laugh.

"Oh, not long at all." Maui laughs. "Even when I was a kid I loved this thing. All I'd do when I was bored was play pranks on people, and this baby played a big role in all of them" He shakes his head as he laughs. "I still remember when I was about eight years old, I pulled so many pranks on the gods that they threatened to send me back to my birth mother"

Moana laughs. "Yep, that sure sounds like you" She says, rolling her eyes. "I wouldn't put that past you at all"

Maui shrugs. "Well what else was I supposed to do?" He asks, and crosses his arms. Moana doesn't respond, but she shakes her head in laughter. Maui watches her, and then finds his gaze falling back to the prosthetic legs the ocean gave her to let her walk around the boat.

"Okay, now what about you?" He asks. "Even the way you got my attention on the beach tells me you didn't come back to the shore right away. How did you adjust to your powers?"

"I'm still trying to, actually." she says, kicking her feet in the water. "I'm not really having any problems with them so to speak," she says, her gaze fixed on the water. "It's just that I'm not sure I know the full extent to them. The leg thing?" She asks, gesturing to her legs as she lifts both out of the water. "Definitely new. I didn't think that was even possible." She shakes her head. "The only things I've really 'mastered', if you even want to call it that is manipulating my form in the water and picking up and throwing small objects. Let me tell you, before I came to you at the beach, I practiced that trick on that same coconut shell from my old boat for hours. I even practiced putting it back OUT of the water. I'm not sure how you could've missed me." She says, rolling her eyes. "But anyway," She says, returning both his and her attention back out to the water. "I just know I have more powers than that. I think it's kind of like how you can't change into just one animal, but hundreds of different ones. I can't just have one power. There has to be more" Moana says, rising to her feet.

"Well why don't you find out right now?" Maui asks, standing up as well.

"Huh?" Moana asks. "What do you mean?" she asks, and Maui gestures at the surrounding water.

"All we've got around us is water. Why don't you just try everything until you find a power that works?" He asks. "That's what worked last time didn't it?" He asks, and she looks at him with confusion.

"Last time?" She asks, but before Maui can respond, Mini Maui waves to get her attention. He then touches just the tip of the hook, and dramatically and quickly pops himself into about four different animals before he imitates switching back into his human form.

"Oh, right." She says. "The last time you weren't able to make your fish hook work properly" She says, and Maui shoots a glare down at Mini Maui. Mini Maui only shrugs back.

"Alright, I guess so, then" Moana says, and walks to the edge of the boat and looking out in the water.

"Start with something small" Maui's voice calls from behind her. _Like a beetle_ , she thinks. Keeping her focus away from Maui and on the ocean, Moana repeats the trick she seems to know best. She flicks her wrist in the air, and a small spray splashes up.

"Good, now keep going and trying different hand gestures to see if that helps. When you're ready, go for something bigger" Maui says, and sits down opposite on the opposite side of Moana just outside her sightline. "I'll just be here watching "He says, and she nods, but still does not turn her attention away from the sea. She sends a quick glance down at her arms. Looking out at the sea, she turns her arm around and flicks her wrist up instead of down. This time, a small blob rises up out of the water instead of just a spray. Smiling, she repeats the action, flicking her wrist harder, and the blob rises higher with the same amount of force she flicked her wrist.

 _Maybe it has to do with more than just my wrist..._ She thinks, and takes a step closer to the water. Closing her eyes, she raises her entire arm slowly, and when she opens her eyes, she sees that a small blob of the ocean is following suit. Smirking, she begins to move her arm around to see if it copies her, and it does. As she sways her arm from side to side, the blob sways from side to side. When she speeds up or slows down, the blob does as well. When she stops, it stops.

"Yes!" Moana shouts, pumping her fist in the air. The blob rises up and then breaks as it tries to copy her, sending a spray of water down on both her and Maui's head. "I knew there was more! There's always more" She says, and then glances down at her hands _. I wonder if_ , she thinks, and raises the other arm in the air just as slowly. Sure enough, another blob rises out of the water. Moana raises her other arm, and another small blob pops up next to the other one. She tries to combine them into one large blob by bringing her two hands together, but when she pushes them together, all that happens is the two blobs crash into each other and break.

 _Okay, maybe I'm taking the wrong approach, then_. Taking a slight step back, she pauses before raising both of her arms simultaneously, and just as she expected, one large blob rises out of the water instead of two smaller ones. She slowly raises both arms over up until they're over her head, and the blob raises itself up and stops when she does. Taking a quick moment to shoot a smirk at Maui, she dramatically flicks both her wrists towards him, and the blob breaks away into a jet and hits him directly in the face.

"Ha!" Moana calls to him. "I guess now I have another way of getting you to stop talking when you're annoying me" She says, dropping her arms to her side as she turns around to face him.

"As much as I really hated that last part," He says, crossing his arms, "and that last comment, I have to admit that was pretty cool."

"I know, right?" Moana asks, clenching her fists together in excitement. "This is going to be so cool! I can't wait until I actually have a use for those" she says, taking her old seat back before turning back around to look at him. "Well, another use, anyway" She says, and without checking for anything in the water, she quickly rises her arm in the air and flicks the water towards him, but doesn't notice until it's too late that she grabbed something small with it.

"Not the hair!" Maui yelps and dodges out of the way of whatever small object is coming after him. A small smacking sound on the deck causes both of them to look down to see that it's a small fish.

"Oops!" Moana says, and picks up the fish with both of her arms before dropping it in the water.

"That too," she says as she watches the fish swim away. "I'd love to be able to use that sometime, too" She says, and smiles. She stands up, and is about to walk to the mast, but a sudden large rumbling from the water knocks her over and she makes a loud smacking sound as she trips and lands on the boat deck.

"Are you doing that?" Maui asks, and she looks up to see that he's holding onto the mast as he tries to keep his balance.

"Does it _look_ like I'm doing anything?" Moana cries as she stands up and grabs the other side of the mast. "There must be something in the water that was attracted to all the movement and splashing I was making" She says.

The two of them look desperately around the water for what's causing all of the rumbling and shaking, and suddenly Maui points to a long, dark shadow. "There!" He says, and lets go of the mast as he takes a step towards the large shadow.

"Is that..?" Moana asks, and Maui nods, already confirming her question before she can get the whole thing out.

"It's a giant eel. The same kind I used to face all the time." He throws his fish hook over his shoulder, and Moana watches him before she gets an idea.

"Wait." She says, and walks to stand next to him. "I have an idea. It would look pretty sick if we pulled it off" She says, and wobbles as the eel throws itself against the boat again.

"Yeah?" Maui asks, turning to her. "What's the plan?"

"I toss the eel out of the water, and you go after it mid-air. Not only would it look really awesome, but it'd also be a cool way of seeing how well our powers work together" She says, and he smirks.

"Alright. Tell me when" He says, his eyes fixed on the dark shadow, and she stands next to him, doing the same thing. She waits a small moment, and when the eel begins to slow down its thrashing, she thrusts both arms in the air as hard as she can.

"Now!" She shouts at the eel flies out of the water, and in a swift move, Maui untangles some of the rope at the end of his hook, and wrapping it around his wrist, he throws the other end of it at the eel. The hook quickly scoops around it, and Maui tugs at hard. This sends the eel flying down towards the deck, and it crashes down hard on its neck, dying on impact.

"Haha, yeah!" Moana says, jumping up into the air. "That looked awesome! We make a great team. Up top!" She says excitedly, and she and Maui share a high five before Maui goes to retrieve his fish hook and kick the dead eel back into the water. As he turns back around to face Moana, he notices something approaching in the distance.

"You know," he says to her. "We do literally have all the time in the world to get to Te Fiti. How's about we take a little pit stop to show off how great of a team we are to some others?" He says, smirking, and she follows his gaze to see what he's looking at.

The entrance to Lalotai.


	3. Chapter 3

"Are you suggesting that we go back down to Lalotai JUST so we can pull pranks on some dumb monsters who don't know any better?" Moana asks, squinting at the approaching mountain. "Because if you are…" She pauses, and whips herself around to face Maui.

"We ABSOLUTELY need to do that." She says, starry-eyed. "It would be the _funniest_ thing watching those monsters turn and run from a little splash of water" She sends a glance to the water and begins to twirl her finger in a small circle. A small whirlpool begins to form in the water. "I did NOT enjoy getting almost eaten and chased around for at least a solid ten minutes last time I was down there. Didn't exactly feel like a warm welcome to me" She stops twirling her finger and watches as the whirlpool continues to swirl as it slows to a stop. She then turns to glare at Maui.

"Thanks for leaving me to die there all those years ago, by the way" She says bitterly, and Maui shrugs.

"Hey, but you survived, right?" He asks. "Besides, I didn't technically leave you there to die, because I easily could have gotten my hook and left you there if I wanted to"

"You literally said 'welp, she's dead' and walked off without me!"

"But I didn't, did I? I made sure not to leave without you after I stole my hook back from Tamatoa"

"Mmm" Moana says mischievously. "That's pretty interesting, because I remember that story going a lot differently"

"Whatever." Maui says, shifting awkwardly. "I'm not having this conversation anymore" He says, and glances down at the water. As he does, a thought comes to his head and he frowns. Scratching at his head, he turns back to Moana.

"Um." He says, heavy confusion ringing in his voice. "How are you going to get down to Lalotai, now that I think about it?" He asks, and Moana smiles.

"Oh, that part's easy" She responds, and takes a few steps backwards until the backs of her heels are hanging off the edge of the boat. Then, as fast as her prosthetic legs can carry her, Moana sprints forward, past Maui, and dives head first into the water. The impact splashes some water up onto the deck, but Maui jumps to the side before any of it can get to him. _Ha!_

The other thing that Maui notices as he's dodging the spray from her dive is that Moana seems to completely disappear when she hits the water. Without Moana's presence, the ocean around the small canoe becomes calm. Almost a little too calm.

Maui steps forward to look for any signs of Moana, but can't seem to find any. At first he thinks that maybe she dived down into Lalotai and is waiting for him to meet her there, but sure enough, Moana eventually raises herself out of the ocean, once again reconnected to it by her lower torso.

"I can just do that!" Moana continues, and twirls herself in a circle. "I bet if I just dove under the mountain I can get into Lalotai the same way I could by jumping in from the top. I can see underwater pretty clearly when I'm hiding under the waves, so when the time comes, I can just quickly dive under the water to check and see if the whirlpool entrance really does just lie underneath the mountain"

"Is that why you took so long to resurface? Because you were doing a little sightseeing?" Maui asks, now resting his fish hook on his shoulder.

"Nope." Moana says, smiling. "I was going to resurface sooner, but then I discovered another power I have and was using it to mess around with this little school of fish that was circling the boat."

"Oh?" Maui says, raising an eyebrow curiously. "What would that be?" He asks, and she shakes her head.

"Nope. I have to show you myself. Get in the water." She says, and before Maui can ask any more questions, Moana leans back, falls into the water, and once again disappears and blends in with the ocean waves. Rolling his eyes, Maui swings his hook, transforms himself into a shark, and flops off of the boat into the water.

Looking around, Maui can't seem to see anything different happening to the water. Confused, he swims around the boat, but finds no evidence of Moana anywhere. The ocean lay unmoving, and it makes Maui wonder what this new trick _possibly_ could be if she made him dive into the water to watch it rather than just showing him from the boat. Maybe she was lying, and only said she had a new power to trick him into diving into the water to get _himself_ soaking wet. He wouldn't put it past her. He begins to swim to the surface, but suddenly, he notices the ocean beginning to swirl and move out of the corner of his eye and he stops. He turns around, expecting see Moana, but finds nothing but a small current of water forming and pushing itself around. Giving up, he turns back around, and as soon as he does, Moana pops out of seemingly nowhere, hanging upside down from the boat with a smirk on her face.

He's so startled by her sudden presence that he accidentally pops himself back into human form. His vison now going blurry, he quickly grabs his fish hook next to him and frantically pushes himself up to the surface and onto the canoe above as fast as he can. When Moana resurfaces seconds after he does, she's laughing so hard she sounds like she's having trouble breathing.

"That," Moana wheezes, and then pauses to collect herself for a short moment. "Was the new power I discovered." Clearly enjoying what had just happened, she begins to break into another fit of hysterical laughter before continuing. "I knew that sort of thing would work on a school of fish, but _you?_ " She asks, and wipes her eyes at tears that aren't really there. "I was NOT expecting you to scare so easily" She says, and Maui crosses his arms.

"Whatever" he says, and digs through his brain for an excuse to get the focus off of him. "How do you want to play this out?" He asks, and she shrugs.

"We could improvise" she suggests. "There's a lot of geysers down in Lalotai, right? I could probably find out how to manipulate those to go off when I want them to." She says. "Not to mention the fact that ocean acts as some sort of invisible ceiling and I can probably figure out some way to get it down to the ground." She begins to count on her fingers for show. "There are more ways I could manipulate the water than there are monsters down there. I think it'd be more fun to go without a plan" She says, smiling, and he rolls his eyes.

"Alright, fair enough" He says, and glances up to check their course. Upon seeing that the boat's close enough to the entrance that they're entering its looming shadow, he turns to her.

"You ready?" He asks, bringing the boat to a stop, and she holds up a finger up to tell him to wait. Quickly, she dives under the water to take a look around. Sure enough, confirming her earlier belief, she can begin to make out the bright neon of the plants native only to Lalotai on the ground far below, proving she could make it down without following Maui to the top of the mountain. She resurfaces and smiles at him.

"Looks like I'm able to get down there from here" She says, offering him thumbs up. "I'll meet you down there. Good luck performing that haka to thin air" She says, rolling her eyes, and he points an accusing finger at her.

"Hey. My hakas are _awesome_ no matter who's watching them. If anything, you're missing out" He says, and she shakes her head.

"Whatever. See you down there" She says, and without waiting for him to say anything else or fly himself to the top, she dives under the water. Eyes fixed on the ground far below her, Moana pushes herself down towards it, kicking her legs behind her to increase her speed. After uncomfortably pushing herself downwards for what feels like hours, she finally breaks the surface of the water and scrunches her face in and her eyes shut for preparation of when she smacks to the ground. After a short moment, she realizes that she's not moving, and opens her eyes to find that she's dangling upside down.

 _Oh. Right._

Closing her eyes, Moana whispers the same words that granted her legs the first time, and just as before, the legs pops into place suddenly rather than gradually, and as she falls she realizes the surface of the water is much higher up from the ground than she originally thought. With a high pitched yelp, she lands hard on the ground, directly on her side. Standing with ease, she brushes off her side as a force of habit and begins to look around at her initial surroundings. It seems to her that she landed on some sort of garden, surrounded entirely of neon coral, barnacles, and other various sea plants. Had she fallen here when she leaped in after Maui the first time, she would've ended up with a lot of cuts and scratches, and it makes her grateful that her new form isn't entirely physical. _And,_ she thinks, laughing to herself, _that Maui was so soft._ Taking one last glance at the plants around her, Moana walks off to look for him, as she hadn't ended up right under the entrance like she would've liked to.

Almost as soon as she steps away from the garden, she hears ugly snarling behind her, and turns to see a masked monster eyeing her carefully. Crawling on its six legs, it takes a few slow steps toward her, snapping its head in an almost-full circle. Moana takes a few steps back, and pauses to squint up at the water above when she finds herself in a rare patch of sunlight peeking into Lalotai's indefinite darkness. Another glint catches her attention, this one coming from her own body, and she glances down to see that the sunlight is catching her blue heart and is causing it to shine through her starry necklace. A horrifying screeching sound brings Moana's attention back to the monster. It's staring her heart down, its head snapping back into its correct position, and acid-like saliva is pouring out from under its mask. The monster crouches down and breaks into a sprint after her. With another loud yelp, Moana blindly runs off in a random direction to try and shake the monster off of her trail, but no matter how many sharp turns Moana takes, the monster continues to stay close by her feet. When Moana takes a quick glance behind her to check her distance with the monster, she trips over something sticking out from the ground. The monster screeches to a stop and slowly begins to loom over her.

" _No!"_ She screeches, throwing her arms up in the air to cover her face, and suddenly a powerful _boom_ erupts from in front of her. Breathing heavily, Moana slowly moves her arms away from her face and notices a misty cloud dispersing above her head. Looking up, she can see the outline of the monster that had been chasing her breaking through the surface of the ocean. A geyser. She tripped over a geyser and in her panicked state she managed to convince it to go off. Good to know that her suspicions in her ability to control them were true.

Suddenly, breaking her bubble of serenity, she hears more heavy footsteps approaching her at an alarming speed, and she whips her head around to see what's coming after her.

Moana is so relieved to see that it's just Maui that she has to physically restrain herself from jumping up and throwing her arms around him in a hug. Instead, she simply pushes herself to her feet and walks to stand by his side.

"So let me get this straight," Maui says to her. "In the fifteen minutes you've been down here without me, you've _already_ managed to cause trouble with some monster and get yourself chased around? And here I thought _I_ had a reputation down here"

"Well it's not my fault" she says, still out of breath. "That thing was going after my heart" She says, and Maui's playful smile and fades and a dark, sour expression takes its place.

"It did what?"

"It saw my heart through my chest when some light was shining down from the surface and went absolutely _insane_ trying to take it from me" She says, bringing a hand to her chest defensively.

"Typical", Maui spits. "All these useless monsters ever want are shiny trinkets or things they think will make them powerful". He says, and after a short moment, he shakes his head, and his default mischievous smile re-sticks to his face.

"Hey, now we have a motivation to take these guys down, huh?" He asks, and she crosses her arms.

"I'm not going to play bait for every monster we run into" She says, and he shakes his head.

"No, I meant we could play it off as a sort of 'don't mess with us kind of thing', right? Other monsters must have seen that guy get blasted out of the realm on that geyser. That's how I found you, after all" He says, and she only meets him with confusion.

"What I'm trying to say is that these guys are just as afraid of the supernatural as they are supernatural themselves." Maui explains. "They see you messing around with the water, they'll already be scared enough to flee. Add me into the picture and we'll be able to do whatever we want down here without anyone coming after us." He says, flexing one of his biceps for show. "They'll be too scared of us to even think about coming after your heart" He says, and a mischievous smile almost reminding him a little bit of his own begins to form on Moana's face.

"Alright, then where should we start?" She asks, and Maui takes a step forward and looks around. After a short moment he stops and turns to her.

"How about there?" He asks, pointing off in a seemingly random direction and Moana walks to stand next to him to see where he's pointing. In the near distance, she can make out a tall, rocky seashell with a scooped-out entrance. Even from where she's standing, Moana can see a dim yellow light coming from inside, and she immediately recognizes the structure as the entrance to Tamatoa's lair.

"Sounds good enough to me" Moana says, and with that, Maui takes the lead to find them the shortest route to Tamatoa's cave.

Almost as soon as they start moving, Moana gets the feeling that she's being watched, and turns her head to side to watch her surroundings. There doesn't seem to be any monsters watching them, but when Moana tries to shrug it off and keep going, the sensation only worsens. Stopping, she turns around, and still finds nothing.

Sighing in frustration, Moana decides to ignore the feeling as she turns back and runs to catch up to Maui, who apparently hadn't been aware that she stopped. Just as she catches up to him, she begins to hear a clicking sound followed by soft, creeping footsteps, and she whips her head around again to see a monster, unrecognizable to her, following them. As she turns, she apparently unblocks its view of Maui, because its eyes seem to lock on him as soon as she does. It begins to crouch down into the same position the other one had when it began to chase after Moana.

"Behind you!" Moana shouts and Maui whips around just as the creature begins to break into a sprint.

"Hey," Maui says, unmoving, the same way he'd address Moana after not seeing her for a while. "I remember you!" He raises his hook up over her shoulder as it claws its way toward him, but right before it can reach his legs to start clawing at them, Maui brings his hook down on the creature and punts it off into the near distance. It lands square in the center of a geyser. "Just as dimwitted and lightweight as I remember" He says, more to Moana than the creature, and she rolls her eyes. Focusing her attention on the monster, she flicks her arms up the same way she had when the first geyser went off, and sure enough, this one does too, and before the monster can process anything that's going on, it's sent flying up above the surface.

Turning, she goes to high five Maui, but a few distant screeches stop her. Turning around, she sees multiple monsters beginning to pop out of various hiding spaces. Having been angered by the sudden geyser exploding, they all begin to inch towards the two of them. A glance back and Moana sees that Maui is watching them over his shoulder just as carefully as she is. Moana begins to back up, and almost immediately her back smacks against Maui's. The two of them exchange a glance, and in that glance, they let the other know that they just had the same crazy idea come to them at the same exact time. In unplanned synchronization, Maui and Moana switch positions, Moana staring up at the water as she does so. Squinting, Moana raises both arms above her head, and then she brings them both down in a quick movement. Sure enough, a spray of water falls down and splashes onto the ground below. She glances behind her, and sees that Maui is fending off the monsters without his hook, kicking and punching at any of the monsters dumb enough to try and lunge at him. Realizing he's probably waiting for a signal from her, she taps on his shoulder, and without taking his attention off of what he's doing, he turns his head back to look at her. She simply nods, and smiling, he nods back.

He moves aside so she can stand next to him. Taking her place, Moana stares up at the water and begins to raise her arms up as Maui begins to gather and scoop the monsters together with his fish hook. Once her arms are over her head, Moana clasps her hands together. She then begins to bring her arms down slowly. Moving with her is what looks like a large ball of water. When the large ball is just above her head, she glances at Maui. Tossing his fish hook up in the air, he sends the group of monsters flying up. Moana then whips her arms in two different directions, and the ball of water explodes, the impact on the monsters sending each of them flying a short distance away from her and Maui. They all slam down onto the ground pretty roughly at the same time, and each and every one of them stand and flee when Moana takes a step towards them for an added dramatic effect.

"Yes!" Moana calls loudly once they're all gone. "That looked so cool!" She says, and runs back to give Maui a high five.

"And now they're all going to leave us alone. See?" Maui asks, and gestures to a group of smallish monsters hiding from them in the shadows. "We're completely free to wander this part of Lalotai without anyone causing us any trouble" He says, and rests his hook back in its default spot over his shoulder. "Now," he says, turning back towards the entrance of Tamatoa's cave now only a short distance away. "Let's get back to the _real_ reason we came down here" He says, and continues to head towards it. Moana rejoins his side, absentmindedly looking out into the distance as she walks. She accidentally catches the eyes of two masked creatures, who turn tail and flee just at the sight of her. Moana snorts a laugh. _I guess I can see why Maui likes that so much,_ she thinks, shaking her head.

She turns her attention back to the path in front of her, but doesn't seem to notice that Maui stopped until she nearly collides into him again. A glance up at the large seashell also lets her know that Tamatoa's cave was closer by then she thought it was. Or she had just spaced out and hadn't noticed. Both explanation made the same amount of sense, come to think of it.

One quick glance inside assures Moana that Tamatoa's in there. His back is turned to the entrance, or at least, Moana thinks it is. He's buried under the sand the same way he had been when she came down here the first time. Taking a half-step forward, Moana notices the opening of the cave full of water, and in her wondering how it managed to stay up without falling down onto Tamatoa's head, she gets an idea. Before she can turn and tell it to Maui, however, he manages to grab her arm made entirely of water and drag her away from the cave entrance so suddenly and quickly she lets out a quiet squeak.

"I know we're excited," Maui whispers mockingly as he begins to tie his hair up, "But if you go in there, and he sees that heart through your necklace just as easily as the first guy did, it won't be so easy getting him to leave it alone" He says, and peeks into the cave to make sure Tamatoa hasn't moved. "So we can't go in there until we have a plan"

"I do have one, actually" Moana whispers back, crossing her arms. "You see the opening above his cave? The one where the fish drop down from?" She asks, and Maui nods.

"What about it?"

"I bet if we lured him right under there I could manipulate the water to fall down and absolutely _drench_ him in seawater and fish" She says. "All I'd have to do is climb up there and attach myself to the ocean and I'd be able to do whatever I want with it. That sound like a good plan?" She asks, and he closes his eyes as he shakes his head in amusement.

"Moana, that's the best plan you've ever come with in your entire life" He says, laughing, and she smiles.

"Great," she whispers. "Then I'm going to go in there. Wait for my signal to wake him up" She says, and Maui watches as Moana disappears into the cave. He can't see her anywhere, but after about two or so minutes, he sees the water above the cave begin to ripple, and Moana hangs upside down from it. She waves to him, and then disappears above the water again. Taking that as a signal, Maui stands and picks up one of the large seashells from the ground. Moving to the entrance of the cave, Maui takes the seashell and chucks it as hard as he can at Tamatoa's shell.

"Tamatoa!" He calls loudly, and places his fish hook on the ground so he can lean on it.

At the sound of his name being called, Tamatoa slowly begins to rise from the ground. He turns around and grins menacingly when he sees Maui standing at the entrance of his cave alone.

"Well, well, well" Tamatoa says, and then pouts. "What's the matter? Come down to clear your head of some things that are bothering you?" Tamatoa asks in a mocking-high pitched voice, and Maui blinks in confusion.

"What are you talking about?" He asks, and dodges out of the way as Tamatoa immediately begins to charge at him.

"Oh, please, do you really think you think you're the only one the ocean speaks to?" Tamatoa says, and takes a short pause "Well, of course you would, because you think you're special, but you're wrong on both accounts." Tamatoa takes a swing at Maui, but before he can, Maui quickly shapeshifts himself into a lizard before running deep into the cave between Tamatoa's legs. Watching him, Tamatoa tries to stomp on him, but because Maui's too fast, Tamatoa missteps and instead steps on the shard of a broken seashell. He hisses in pain and takes a step backwards. Maui, now at the back of the cave, pops back into his human form.

"Does the ocean ever tell you how unbearably obnoxious you are?" Maui calls to him, and Tamatoa frowns.

"No," he says, and takes a glance up at the opening in his cave. "But it has been talking an awful lot lately, hasn't it?" He asks, and Maui's smile falters _. Did he see Moana earlier? Does he know she's in here now?_ He wonders, and a sudden laugh from Tamatoa breaks through his thoughts.

"Don't act so surprised" Tamatoa says, grinning. "The ocean will tell its problems to anyone willing to listen." He takes a step towards Maui, who takes a step back. "I know all about that little friend of yours" He says, and Maui has to bite his lip to prevent himself from showing how shocked he is. How could he possibly know? The ocean never considered Tamatoa to be one of its friends, as far as Maui's concerned, and he knows for sure it would never tell someone who hated Moana as deeply as Tamatoa about her new immortality.

"But what can you do about it now?" Tamatoa continues, breaking his thoughts again, clearly not appreciating the fact that Maui isn't paying full attention to him. "She's _dead_." He hisses, and takes a swing at Maui with one of his claws. "Ocean told me so itself" He brags, and Maui dodges out of the way just in time to force Tamatoa to smack his claw into the wall really hard. He retracts it and shakes it out, like that'll make it stop hurting, and that gives Maui enough time to find a temporary hiding spot where he can gather his thoughts.

Okay, so he had been wrong. Tamatoa isn't aware that Moana came back. He only knows that she died, and that he's trying to use that as a weak point. That part he understands. Gossip spreads surprisingly quickly around Lalotai, especially for a place where most of its residents are unable to speak, and he's sure Moana became pretty well known after she, a mere human, knocked a fifty-foot crustacean upside down onto his shell. It makes sense that news of her death would spread to Lalotai. But the part that confuses Maui is _how_ Tamatoa got ahold of the information. He claimed the ocean told him, and the ocean wasn't exactly the kind of sentient being to be direct with people. In fact, it seemed to Maui that the ocean tried to be as subtle as possible _if_ it ever decided to 'speak' to anyone.

But just as quickly as he questions it, he thinks of an answer. Maybe it wasn't the ocean who told Tamatoa, but Moana herself.

This gives Maui the idea to play along. Not only will it make it much easier to trick Tamatoa and lure him directly under the opening, but it'll scare him so much more when Moana pops her head in after completely drenching him in water. Maybe he'll even scream like a little girl. The idea makes Maui laugh, and a loud stomp next to him causes him to turn his head. Big mistake on his part. As soon as Maui turns to look at him, Tamatoa reaches down and grabs him by the hair before tossing him up in the air and catching him.

"You can't hide from me" He says, and grins. "Just like how your little friend couldn't hide from death. It's a shame she's not here now. I would've been amused to watch her try to save you from me. Again." He says, but before Tamatoa can do anything else to him, Maui swings the hook up to whack him in the claw with it. Before he can, Tamatoa drops him quickly, almost as if he's afraid he was about to lose the entire arm. Maui lands on his knees.

"Leave her out of this!" Maui cries, and begins to unravel some of the rope from the end of his hook. Squinting, he throws the fish hook out at Tamatoa's legs. Instead of wrapping around two like Maui would've liked it to, the hook only wraps itself around one.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, old friend" Tamatoa says. He shakes his leg to get the hook off of it and kicks it across the cave. "She's really bothering you and all I'm trying to do is help you forget about her" Tamatoa says in a condescending manner, and stomps forward in front of Maui to block his path to his hook. "No matter what it takes" he adds darkly, and reaches out with his claw at Maui. Somersaulting forward, Maui dodges out of the way of Tamatoa's claw. Standing, he makes a beeline for his hook and picks it up. As he begins to ravel the rope back up, he takes a glance up to check his and Tamatoa's position. Tamatoa's just outside where he needs to be. If he just moved _a few inches closer,_ then…

"It's sad, really" Tamatoa's voice cuts in. "Watching you get emotionally attached to a _human,_ of all things. You know they're all going to die eventually, right? Every single one of them? You really shouldn't waste your time with mortals like them" Tamatoa says, and takes a step forward towards him. Unmoving, Maui takes another short glance up at the opening. Bingo. He's standing right under it.

Forcing his smile down, Maui takes a half-step towards Tamatoa. "You know what?" He says in mock-defeat. "You're right. Maybe I shouldn't spend so much time with mortals like them" He says, and Tamatoa's eyes flash in confusion for a moment before returning to his default angry snarl. Before Tamatoa can say anything else, Maui takes another short step towards him and glances up at the opening. Moana reappears, still hanging upside down, and Maui gives her a little half nod. Returning the gesture, she closes her eyes, and unable to keep a smile off of her face, she flings her arms down at Tamatoa as roughly as she can. Suddenly, a large torrent of water comes crashing down on Tamatoa, bringing with it a large school of fish.

"Ack! No!" Tamatoa screeches, but no matter where he steps he can't seem to get out of the water's path. He steps forward, both eyes squeezed shut to avoid filling them with ocean water, slips on a fish, and lands down on his stomach so hard some of the gold that hadn't been fully secured onto his shell rolls off and crashes to the ground. The water stops flowing down, and Maui takes a step closer to him. "Maybe I should stop spending so much time with mortals," he repeats Tamatoa's words. "But Moana?" he asks, and as he says her name, she drops down from the opening and flawlessly lands on her feet atop Tamatoa's shell. "She's _im_ mortal, so I guess that doesn't apply to her, does it?"

"Who's…?" Tamatoa starts, but then twists his eyestalk back to see what had just landed on his shell.

"Chee-hoo" Moana calls quietly, waving at him, and Tamatoa is so startled by her appearance he jumps to his feet. Moana quickly jumps off of his shell and stands beside Maui. Tamatoa stumbles backwards, and, slipping on the same fish, he loses his balance and falls backwards onto his shell. A larger chunk of his collection snaps off his shell on the impact and rolls onto the ground.

"Oh come on!" Tamatoa shouts dramatically, crossing his arms.

Watching him, Moana and Maui both roll their eyes.

"Well," Maui says to her, loud enough for Tamatoa to hear. It's clear he's almost forcing himself not to laugh. "I think we've taught Lalotai a good enough lesson, do you think we should get going?" He asks.

Moana, forcing herself just as hard not to break into a laughing fit nods. "Off to Te Fiti, then" she says, and the two of them back off before running out of the cave to look for the nearest geyser. Spotting one, she and Maui step inside, and with a quick motion of her wrists, Moana convinces the geyser to go off, blasting the two of them back to the surface.


	4. Chapter 4

The moment they break through the surface, the two of them simultaneously break into a hysterical laughing fit. Once they get back to their boat, Moana pushes her hands down onto the deck of the boat and whispers the incantation to get her legs back. She pushes herself on board, and attempts to walk to Maui, but because she's laughing too hard she slips into a sitting position and whacks the back of her head against the mast.

"Okay," she wheezes out. "That was probably the most fun I've ever had in my _entire_ life. Once we get back from Te Fiti, we're definitely going back down there again" Moana says, bringing a hand to her forehead as she laughs.

"The most?" Maui asks, trying to sound hurt, but he's still wheezing with laughter too. "Even more than the first time you sailed to Te Fiti?"

"I almost died three times in Lalotai _alone_ the first time" Moana says, squinting at him. "This time three monsters almost died _because_ of me" She says smugly, resting her hands behind her head as she leans against the mast of the boat. "Which would you prefer?" she asks, and Maui snorts a laugh as he works on getting the boat moving again. Despite the fact that they had left their boat completely unattended, it doesn't seem like it moved at all. Maui would think for sure that if someone or something hadn't stolen the boat when they were down there, the ocean would've drifted the boat off in some random direction. But even the ocean around them is perfectly still. Shrugging it off, He sits at the controls and resets the boat's course for Te Fiti.

He glances back up at Moana when the boat starts to move again. Her hands are still placed behind her head, but that smug smile she had on her face is now replaced with a more content one. Her eyes are closed, and she seems to be enjoying the warmth of the sunshine reaching her side of the deck. Maui shakes his head in amusement as he goes back to working on the controls, but once they're completely out of Lalotai's dark shadow, something bright flashes in his eye and he frowns. Squinting, he looks back up, and sees that the sun is shining right through Moana's chest and bouncing off of her heart. It's casting an intensely bright shade of blue sunlight over the deck in front of her.

He frowns. That explains how the first monster down in Lalotai was able to see it so easily without her popping her necklace open. Even from the other side of the boat, even if Maui can't make it out perfectly, he can see its general outline inside her star necklace and the sun reflecting off of it is causing it to shine so bright anyone could see it from miles away. There were definitely going to be more monsters who would want it, and if they were anything like Tamatoa or the rest of those _bottom feeders_ down in Lalotai it would take more than asking nicely to get them to back off.

The monsters above Lalotai's surface are a lot smarter, too. Some of them know how to dodge a blow and how to sneak behind him when he's not looking. If he messed up and let one slip by him and get to Moana, and if she wasn't fast enough to defend herself, and if it reached into her chest and tried to pull her heart out-

No. Maui shakes his head to clear those awful thoughts. It would never happen. He _couldn't_ let it happen.

Frowning, he makes sure the controls are set enough to allow him to walk away from them, and he stands.

"Moana, can we talk?" He asks, and she pops an eye open. When she sees a blue light bouncing off of Maui's face, she opens her mouth to question it but answers her own question when she glances down at herself.

"Sorry!" she offers sheepishly, and shrugs. "Is it my heart? Because I can move if it's making things too hard to see" She says, and stands.

"No-" Maui starts, but then cuts himself off. "Actually, yes, it is pretty obnoxious, but that's not what I want to talk about"

"Oh." Moana says, and leans back against the mast again. "Then what do you want to talk about?" She asks, and he eyes her necklace for a short moment before continuing.

"Um." Maui says awkwardly, like he's unsure how to word his question. "That monster down in Lalotai who came after your heart. What did it exactly do when it tried to take it from you?"

"You mean before it started chasing after me? Well first of all, it locked its beady little eyes onto my heart and let out the most high-pitched screech I've ever heard in my entire life." She starts, going wide-eyed. "After that, it started drooling acid like _crazy,_ and then it sort of crouched down and waited for the perfect moment to come sprinting at me, I guess." She says, and shrugs. "And then it ran after me, I tripped over a geyser, and used it to blast the monster out of Lalotai. Simple as that."

Maui frowns. He'd been down in Lalotai enough times to be able to interpret the monster screeches pretty well, and each time he used to hear one let out a really high pitched screech like the one she described, it would've been minutes before a large group of monsters came in to help the other in battle. That monster wanted her heart so badly it called for others to come and help it take it from her.

On top of that, it had crouched down to get to her. In his experience, monsters only ever crouched when they were about to pounce, so Moana must've started running right before it had the chance to. And then she _tripped_ over that geyser, completely by chance, and if she hadn't been able to get it to blow off-, He starts to think, but manages to rip himself from his thoughts before they could get any darker.

"I just," Maui starts awkwardly. "think that maybe you should work on protecting your heart a little more carefully is all" He finishes, and at first she looks completely flabbergasted and offended, but after a few seconds, realization seems to come to her, and her expression eases into a smirk. She crosses her arms.

"Maui, demigod of the wind and sea," Moana recites in a mocking tone. "Are you _worried_ about me?"

"Well, I'm just saying" He replies, avoiding her question entirely. "What happens if we run into a monster above the surface? What if that one tries to take your heart too?" He asks, and her smirk only deepens at the unintentional confirmation he just gave to her question.

"First of all, I've got the entire ocean on my side" She says, and brings a hand up and waves it back and forth. The ocean copies like it's waving hello. "Secondly," she says, dropping her arms to her side and pointing an accusing finger at him. "You're talking like you wouldn't be there. It'd be kind of hard to get separated when we're on the _same boat_ in the middle of the ocean, so I really doubt what happened in Lalotai could happen again" She says, and eyes the oar in Maui's hand that he had been using to help steer the boat. "And thirdly," she says, smirking, and reaches forward and quickly whips it out of his hand before he can realize she's trying to take it. "I can just do this" She starts, and while Maui is confusingly trying to figure out how the oar transferred from his hand to hers, she whacks him in the arm with it really hard.

"Hey!" he says defensively, rubbing at the sore spot on his arm.

"Just _try_ and take my heart from me" Moana says with that glint of mischief returning in her eyes. She takes another swing at him with the oar, and Maui ducks out of the way. Taking a step towards him, Moana tightens her grip on the oar, and swings it again, this time coming in from the other direction. Maui, not noticing the change up in time, tries to dodge the blow, but ends up smacking right into it.

"Ha!" Moana calls out, and prepares to swing at him again. She spins around, and tries to whack at him again, but her hit is immediately blocked when he raises his fish hook up to stop it. "Unfair!" Moana says, sticking her tongue out at him.

"What, you can whack me with your oar all you want but suddenly it becomes unfair when I try to defend myself? Rude." He says, and this time he takes a swing at Moana. She blocks the hit with her oar, and takes a half of a step back. She pauses to look down at her oar for a moment, and then looks back up at Maui. Smiling, she raises her oar up into the air slowly. He smiles back, and begins to raise his hook in the air in the same, slow pattern she used.

Then, without words, the two of them rush forward at the same time, both raising their weapon and swinging it to try and whack at the other. When their weapons clash, Moana slides backwards, and stomps her feet on the deck of the boat to still herself when she stops. Taking no time to stop for a break, she steps forward again, and she and Maui continue to battle back and forth on the small boat, running all around the small deck to try to avoid each other's hits or to try to try to take the other from behind by surprise.

When Maui blocks one of her hits harder than she expects him to, her oar goes flying out of her hand and towards the water. Quickly, she raises both arms in the air in a movement so swift the oar merely bounces off of the water before returning to her boat. It lands on the deck in front of her, and she picks it up. Maui's staring at her in disbelief. Smirking, she takes the opportunity to flick her wrist roughly in his direction, and a hard spray of water hits him in the face so suddenly and unexpectedly he recoils like he had just been slapped in the face.

"There, you see?" Moana says as Maui pushes his wet hair out of his eyes. "You've got nothing to worry about. Any monster that comes by is gonna have to answer to the ocean first" She says, whacking the end of the oar down onto the deck lightly. "And then to this," she says, gesturing to the oar by waving it back and forth in a quick motion. "And then to _that_ " She says, gesturing to Maui's fish hook. She smiles. "If I were a monster, I think I'd turn tail and flee as soon as the ocean started turning against me" She says, and offers the oar back to Maui. He takes it from her, and returns to the controls as Moana goes to sit at the edge of the boat by the water.

As she looks out at the water, it suddenly comes to her attention just how still the ocean is. The only waves she can see seem to be the ones being created by her boat. She stands and walks to the mast, looking out at the direction they had just come from. Although now a distance away, Moana can see that instead of crashing gentle waves against the shore holding the entrance to Lalotai, the ocean instead appears to be resting on the shore. Frowning, she walks back over to where she had been sitting earlier, and lies down on her stomach to inspect the water more carefully. The way the sun is starting to set and cast off the water is making it look more like glass, and the way the boat is speeding through it makes it look like it's shattering. Taking a quick glance over at Maui to make sure he's not watching her, Moana leans over and sticks her head under the water to look around at the ocean below.

Underneath the water, everything seems normal. There are schools of fish of different colors and sizes peacefully swimming by. At the bottom of the ocean, she can make out a few oysters resting in the sand besides a few patches of dark green sea plants. In the distance, she can make out a sea turtle swimming in the opposite direction of the boat. Moana sighs with relief. Maybe the ocean's just still because they're not near any islands. It makes sense that the ocean would behave differently on Lalotai then it would on Motunui, because the ocean needs to keep itself still so no water could fall down and attack any of its residents.

 _At least, it used to,_ Moana thinks, smiling to herself, and when she hears the muffled sound of Maui's voice coming from above her, she pulls her head out of the water to look at him.

"What was that?" She asks, turning to him.

"I asked what you were doing" Maui says, crossing his arms. "I looked up at you to ask you a question and all I see is you leaning forward and shoving your face in the water"

"Oh, you know" Moana says, smirking. "Just trying to get away from you is all" She says, copying his gesture. "It's so much nicer and prettier down there and nobody tried to violently whack anything out of my hand"

"Hey! You were having just as much fun as I did and you know it" He says, failing to hide his smile as he sits next to her.

"True," Moana says, smiling. "But you still whacked it out of my arms, and that's against the rules"

"There are no rules in a real fight, Curly"

"Except that _wasn't_ a real fight" Moana reminds him, and he groans as Mini Maui comes to life only to add a point to Moana's tally chart before freezing in place again.

"What's down there that's so interesting, anyway? I called you about four times before you even seemed to acknowledge I was standing next to you"

"What _isn't_ down there? It's the ocean" Moana says, crossing her arms. "There's fish everywhere, there's plants, I saw an oyster or two, there's even a few sea turtles down there. The ocean's pretty active down there" She says, gesturing down towards the ocean floor with her head. "What I wouldn't give to just be able to go for a walk on the ocean floor and go sightseeing" She says, waving her hands around her face dramatically, and Maui laughs.

"What were you doing down there, anyway?" He asks, and Moana drops her arms to her side.

"I was…checking to see how things were going down there" She says glumly, and casts another quick glance down at the ocean. When her smile fades, Maui's does too.

"Why?"

"Maui, does something seem off about the ocean to you?" She asks, and Maui follows her gaze out on the water. It doesn't look like anything about it changed since they had arrived at Lalotai earlier that morning.

"It doesn't seem different to me"

"See, that's the thing that's bothering me" Moana says, and places her hand in the water. "I feel like it should be changing and it should look different at this time of day, but it's not moving. It's not doing anything" Moana says, and when she takes her hand out of the water, it creates a small ripple in the still surface.

"And you were checking under the water to…see if it was having the same problem?" Maui asks, and Moana nods.

"It doesn't look like anything's different down there. None of the fish seem to be affected by the ocean's calm behavior" Moana says, pouting. "So there's probably nothing wrong with it, but it just…" she pauses, her voice trailing out for a moment. "Bothers me." She finishes, casting a quick glance out at the water.

"I had noticed something earlier, actually" Maui says, and Moana looks back up at him. "When we came back from Lalotai, and our boat was in the same exact spot even though we never brought it to shore, I kind of thought it was…weird?" He sort of asks, like 'weird' hadn't been the word he was looking for. Despite that, Moana perks up that Maui immediately put her concerns into words. She attempts (and fails) to snap her fingers and points at him.

"Yes! Exactly!" Moana says with a sort of excited smile on her face. "It's so weird, because you'd think the ocean would've pushed it away, or to the shore because we forgot to, or something would've taken it, but nothing! None of that happened, and even _I_ know the ocean doesn't usually go that easy on you" She says, calling back the time the ocean had created a tsunami to 'help' her find Maui's island.

Maui laughs. "Well, we are already on our way to Te Fiti, aren't we?" He asks. "If anyone has answers about it, it's her, so we might as well add it to the list of like, 80 questions we're already planning on throwing at her" He says, and Moana snorts a laugh as Maui stands.

As Maui walks back to the controls, Moana turns her attention back to the water. He's right. They are already on their way to Te Fiti, so any question Moana has could easily be answered in a number of days. Plus, there really didn't seem to be anything different happening below the waves, so she probably doesn't have anything to worry about. Letting herself relax, she watches the setting sun sparkle and dance off of the surface. When the sun lowers enough that it appears to be resting just above the horizon, Moana moves over and sits in front of the mast to watch it set completely.

Not long after that, the stars begin to come out. Moana stays where she is, leaned against the mast, and watches as more and more begin to appear as the sky gets darker. When all the stars are in the sky, she stands and instinctively raises a hand to the sky to measure where they are. Smiling, she drops her hand down to her side and sits back down, dangling her feet in the water, staring up at the night sky.

After a little while, Moana glances back and watches Maui work out the controls. As she does, she notices that his shoulders are slumping over slightly and he's leaning forward on the controls with one of his hands propped under his chin. He's bored.

Frowning, Moana turns her attention back out at the stars, and after a while of watching them twinkle as she searches for familiar constellations, she gets an idea.

"Hey!" She calls, and turns back to look at him. He immediately jumps up into a sitting position and straightens out his back like he didn't want Moana to see what he was doing. "Take a break and come sit with me" She says, and pats gently at the deck next to her. "The ocean's clearly not going to push us off course, and you look like you're about to fall asleep"

"I don't sleep" Maui says, crossing his arms as he stands.

"No, but you do get bored, and bored people fall asleep. Sit" She says, and pats at the deck beside her again. "Come look at the stars with me" She says, and moves over to make room for him.

"What for?"

"Oh, come on" Moana says, casting a glance up at the stars. "There's so many out here in the middle of the ocean. When can you say was the last time we stargazed together? Never?" She asks, and pats down on the deck again.

"Uh, I remember _exactly_ when the last time we stargazed together was." Maui says as he finally takes the spot next to her. "I'd be offended, but I don't think you were exactly _there_ when it happened"

"What do you mean I 'wasn't there'?" She asks, crossing her arms.

"Moana, you literally fell asleep on me after five minutes" He says, laughing. "I don't think you could've been paying less attention to what was going on if you tried. One minute, you were looking up at the stars for constellations, and the next," He says, and blows a raspberry for emphasis. "You're out cold on my shoulder without so much as a _warning_. I'm pretty sure I was right in the middle of a sentence, nonetheless"

Next to him, Moana scrunches her face in as she digs through her memories, and then after a little bit she whacks him with the back of her hand. "That was _you_?" Moana asks, going slightly wide-eyed. "I couldn't for the life of me figure out how I ended back in my _fale_ the next morning when I clearly remembered lying down after talking to someone on the beach!"

"Yep!" Maui says as he laughs, and shakes his head. "And that was just the first time you'd done that to me. You may have hated sleeping, but that mortal body of yours sure didn't"

"I fell asleep on top of you more than once?" Moana asks, and Maui snorts.

"You fell asleep on me almost every time you complained you were tired. I almost had timing how long it took you to fall asleep down to a science"

Moana opens her mouth to respond, but closes it. She does remember that she used to lean on him and loudly complain about being tired or threaten to fall asleep on him a hundred times over, but she never remembered actually falling asleep. She had just figured that when she 'woke up' and he wasn't there anymore was because he stood up and walked away quick enough for her not to notice.

"Well," Moana says eventually. "There goes your life savings, then. You'll never be able to catch me falling asleep again, because I'm never going to sleep again" She says smugly, and leans back on her hands for a better view of the stars. The two of them watch in silence for a moment, but when a shooting star shoots across the sky she immediately jumps to her feet.

"Yes!" Moana shouts, throwing her arms up in the air and unintentionally causing a wave of ocean water to splash over the deck and soak Maui from head to toe. "Finally!" She shouts, and places a hand on her hip as she returns her attention to Maui. "You see?" She says, pointing up at the sky. "I told you I'd be able to see one if I stayed up long enough" she says, and Maui leans over the boat to squeeze the water out of his hair.

"Congratulations," he mutters sarcastically. "It only took you 65 years to finally see one. It totally had to do with the fact that you stayed up for most of the night and absolutely nothing else" He says, and Moana squints at him as she takes her seat back next to him.

"I think falling asleep at night could be exactly why it took me so long to see one" She replies, and crosses her arms. "Besides, it's still better than never seeing one at all" She says, and Maui says nothing in response but rolls his eyes at her before he goes back to looking out at the stars.

The two of them stay where they are and look out at the stars as their boat gently pushes its way through the water for the rest of the night. Just as the sun is beginning to peak over the horizon, the area around them begins to feel warmer, and the air around them immediately begins to feel much crisper.

Just peaking over the horizon in harmony with the sun is the outline of an island. Three luscious green mountains are reaching up out of it to touch the sky.

It's Te Fiti.

Maui and Moana stand in unison.

"You ready?" Maui says to her as he takes his place back at the controls. Moana glances down at her hands for a brief moment, and then she casts a quick glance at the calm ocean. Taking a deep breath, she clenches her fists together and turns to him. She smiles and gives him that same nod they used to signal for each other in Lalotai.

"Go."

Maui returns her smile and nods back. Settling down at the controls, he increases the boat's speed and does not stop until the boat pulls itself into Te Fiti's shore. Once there, he and Moana jump off of the small canoe, and Maui drags it up to the beach to prevent it from drifting away. He then turns towards the direction of the goddess's head and cups his hands around his mouth to make sure she can hear him clearly enough.

"Te Fiti!" He calls loudly, and as if she were waiting for them to arrive, she immediately awakens and begins to rise. Smiling slightly, she scoops a hand underneath the two of them and raises them up until they're at her eye level. Moana drops down to her knee without fail, and a when she sends a quick glance back at Maui, he drops down to one of his knees as well.

"What brings you here?" Te Fiti asks, and both Maui and Moana stand and exchange a glance.

"Well," Maui says, stepping forward to speak first. "We came to you because we have questions about Moana" he says, gesturing with his head to the water spirit standing next to him. Te Fiti tilts her head very slightly, and after a while she smiles in recognition. Moana takes this as a cue to step forward as well.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to be" Moana admits, looking herself over. "I died and came back" She says, bringing a hand to her forehead. "I mean, I know that's not impossible" She says, remembering her grandmother. "But I feel like I came back sooner than I should've" She says, choosing her words as carefully as she can.

"Explain" Te Fiti says knowingly.

"Well, when I died, my people chose to send me out to sea for my burial, and as I was out there in the water something...odd happened to me" Moana says, and Te Fiti nods as encouragement to continue. "The ocean took my body and filled me with water, and then gave me this heart" She says, and clicks open her necklace to allow Te Fiti to look at it. For a half second, Te Fiti almost looks shocked, but it quickly fades and is replaced with a warm smile.

"As you know," Te Fiti says to Moana. "You are the Ocean's Chosen. You were chosen when you were very young for your selflessness and empathy towards one that was in danger. Your understanding and strategy was very rare for a mortal of your age" She says, and Moana bows her head down in a quick gesture.

"Thank you" Moana says, and Te Fiti smiles again as she continues.

"When the ocean chose you, it found a friend in you. It dedicated itself to you. The ocean chose you to aid you in ways other than assisting you in restoring my heart to me" She says, and quickly sends a glance at Maui as she says this before returning her attention to Moana. Next to her, Maui awkwardly avoids Te Fiti's gaze.

"It chose me to assist me...in death?" Moana asks, confused, and Te Fiti nods.

"The ocean chose to assist you in many things. Among these things, the ocean chose to assist in preserving you and your soul, and it did as much as it could to make it possible" Te Fiti finishes, and Moana smiles, casting a glance down at the ocean below. She would definitely have to thank the ocean personally for that later. She could even figure out some way to show it her appreciation as soon as she and Maui left Te Fiti.

"So, I've got a question" Maui cuts into her thoughts, his eyebrow raised in questioning as he steps forward. "If the ocean wanted to preserve her, why didn't she just come back as a sea creature or something?" He asks, and Te Fiti's warm smile returns. She casts a glance at Moana, and then returns her attention to Maui.

"Because it did not want to separate you"

"What?" Maui and Moana blurt out in perfect unison, and Te Fiti lets out a low, quiet laugh.

"The ocean accompanied you two on every voyage you have taken together. It accompanied you on your first voyage together and witnessed how close you became. The Ocean knows, Maui, just how much you mean to each other, and when this mortal girl passed, it knew better than to keep you apart" she says, and Maui pauses to simultaneously process everything and come up with a response.

"Then what about you?" He asks. "The ocean can't just give life on its own. You had to do something with this. How do _you_ know all of this?" He asks, and Te Fiti looks at him with an amused smile on her face.

"You are not the only one the ocean speaks to" She repeats Tamatoa's words and Moana can't help but snort a laugh. "Do not think," Te Fiti continues. "That I did not see what happened in Lalotai. You should know, Maui, that I have a lot of liberties as a goddess, and this allows me to see even those you would not think possible" She says, and raises her other hand to her chest where her heart spiral lies. Immediately recognizing the second meaning behind her words, Maui clears his throat awkwardly and shifts his eyes away from Te Fiti for a moment. She smiles with a glint of amusement now shining in her eyes.

"You two work well together as a team" She says, now addressing both of them. "You have said this yourselves many times. You have a deeper understanding for each other than most mortals out there combined. Your stories are intertwined. There are places where one ends," She pauses to glance at Moana. "And another begins" She continues, turning her head to glance at Maui.

"You are inseparable. When the ocean gave up its heart for you," She says, now addressing Moana. "It had every intention to make sure you two would not be separated for a very long time" She says. "You are free to sail the open seas without ever having to worry about rough storms or difficult waves" She says, and with that, she begins to lower the two of them down to the ground. "I hope you are satisfied with what I have offered you" She says to them once they're on the ground, and once again rises herself up before lying back down to go to sleep. A warm, sweet smelling breeze whips gently past Maui and Moana when she settles all the way down.

"Well, there you have it!" Maui says, and claps his hands together happily. "I guess we really _do_ have all the time in the world to do whatever we want now" He says, turning to elbow her. "Where do you want to start, 'Ocean's Ch…." He starts, but then his voice trails off when he sees her gloomily staring out at the water.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asks, stepping to stand in front of her.

"The ocean….gave up its heart for me" Moana says, bringing a hand to her necklace. "That's why it's being so quiet..." She says, and slowly walks down to the water. "That's why we haven't had any trouble with the canoe" She says, and kneels down at the water's edge. "The ocean...it's not sentient anymore because...of me"

"Hey," Maui says, and approaches her before kneeling down next to her. "Don't say that"

"But it's true" Moana says, dipping her hand in the near-still water. "It gave up its sentience for me. That's what Te Fiti said." She says miserably, and slumps her shoulders down as she continues to push her hand around in the water. Maui frowns as he watches the way the water moves at her touch.

"Te Fiti lied" he mumbles. "The ocean didn't give up anything" He says, and Moana removes her hand from the water to look at him.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, look at you. The way I see it, the ocean gifted you with a second life because it sees you as somebody worthy of saving" He pauses, and smiles nostalgically at his own words. "That's one more life than any other mortal on the planet" He says, and she laughs sadly.

"But what about the ocean?" She asks, placing her hand back in the water. "It gave _its_ life to me. It gave _its_ heart to me" She says, and Maui watches as the ocean begins to swirl around as she drags her hand back and forth through it.

"It's moving right now, isn't it?" He asks, and Moana follows his gaze down to the water swaying back and forth in rhythm with her hand gestures.

"Yeah, so?"

"Moana, it's moving because you're manipulating it to. I don't believe the ocean gave up its life for you at all. If anything, it looks to me like it's sharing its life with you. Te Fiti said the ocean chose you because you were empathetic and stuff, right?" He asks, and she nods.

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with the ocean now?

"Well," Maui starts, and changes his position so he can lean back on his hands. "Maybe this is just the ocean's crazy way of trying to be empathetic towards you. Maybe the ocean wanted to feel closer to you and connect in a way it could relate to." He says, and a confused expression flashes on his face for a moment. "Because empathy's when you can relate to someone else's problem, right?" He asks, and takes a short pause. "Yeah, right" He answers himself, and Moana lets out a short laugh. Maui wasn't the best motivational speaker. Sure, what he was saying was fine, but he just wasn't the best at executing it. Moana supposes what he's saying is partially true. She's not entirely convinced that the ocean is still sentient, or that it's trying to 'share its life' with her like Maui had been saying, but it's a nice thought. Taking her attention off of the ocean, she turns it to Maui, and suddenly remembers everything Te Fiti had said about the two of them. _You have a deeper understanding for each other than most mortals out there combined,_ Te Fiti's words echo in her mind, and she turns to him and throws her arms around him in a hug.

"Thank you" she says, and she can practically _feel_ him smiling as he hugs her back.

"You're welcome!" he says cheerfully, and she snorts a laugh as they pull away. Moana's glance falls back on the ocean, but her attention shifts when Maui stands next to her.

"Come on" He says, gesturing to their boat on the other side of the beach. "I know what'll cheer you up. You wanna go back down to Lalotai and show Tamatoa who's boss again like you had said you wanted to earlier?" He asks, and she laughs. She casts a glance at the still ocean and her smile falters, but when she glances back over at Maui, he looks like he's got the most excited smile on his face that she's ever seen him make in her entire life. Smiling, she pushes herself to her feet.

"Yes".


End file.
